SAN FRANCISCO, CA, November 1, 2016 — The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation has awarded the Wiki Education Foundation (Wiki Ed) a two-year operating grant totalling $500,000 in support of its work to grow the content on Wikipedia by bridging the worlds of higher education and Wikipedia.

In Wiki Ed’s most established program, college and university instructors assign their students to add content to course-related articles on Wikipedia, the world’s largest open educational resource. In participating in this open educational practice, students gain key 21st century skills like media literacy, writing and research development, and critical thinking, while content gaps on Wikipedia get filled thanks to students’ efforts.

“I am grateful to the Hewlett Foundation for their recognition of Wiki Ed’s impact on adding important content to Wikipedia,” said Frank Schulenburg, executive director of the Wiki Education Foundation. “Our work connecting Wikipedia and academia enables us to harness the power of higher education to enhance the availability of information on the world’s largest open educational resource.”

Since 2010, more than 1,320 courses at more than 300 higher educational institutions have participated in the program. More than 27,000 students have added 25 million words to Wikipedia. That’s 56% of the total content in the last print edition of Encyclopedia Britannica. Wiki Ed has been steadily growing the number of courses participating in the program. In spring 2016, students’ work was viewed 183 million times.

“We are pleased to partner with Wiki Ed on its groundbreaking work in open educational practice with this grant,” said TJ Bliss, program officer at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. “Wiki Ed is at the forefront of both developing new open educational content, and encouraging educators to innovate on how students can use the materials to learn.”

For more information on the Wiki Education Foundation, visit wikiedu.org.

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About the Wiki Education Foundation

The Wiki Education Foundation (Wiki Ed) serves as the bridge between academia and Wikipedia. A small 501(c)3 nonprofit, Wiki Ed runs programs that seek to build connections between universities and Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects in the United States and Canada. Wiki Ed is based in San Francisco. For more information, visit wikiedu.org.